Monday, 27 April 2015

The BBC and the arms trade: the scandal no one is talking about By Harry Blain

17 April 2015.

The government has deeply associated the BBC with an industry known
mainly for corruption, bribery and contempt for human rights.

The BBC Trust is “the
governing body of the BBC”, with the responsibility to ensure that the
Corporation delivers on its mission “to inform, educate and entertain.”
The Trust describes itself as “the guardian of license fee revenue”,
aiming to make the Corporation “simpler, more efficient and more
open.”

It also sets editorial standards, appoints the Director-General
and serves as “the final arbiter on complaints.” Established through
the 2006 BBC Royal Charter, the Trust, along with the separate
executive board, plays a central role in the governance and regulation
of the BBC.As Dan Hind has written
for ourBeeb, the Trust’s members are not, to say the least, chosen
democratically. There are twelve trustees – four of whom are charged
with representing Britain’s Home Nations, one an International Trustee –
all formally appointed by the Queen, on the recommendation of
government ministers.
Hind also illustrates how experience in journalism has not exactly
been a prerequisite for trustees, with CVs instead distinguished by
“strong links with the financial sector”, and roles on the boards of
energy companies.

Carr has been chairman of BAE since February 2014, and “is also a
member of the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Group and a senior
advisor to KKR – the world’s largest private equity company.”
Appointed as a trustee on March 20 along with former Radio 4
controller Mark Damazer and former Tory donor and banker Mark Florman,
Carr apparently fits with the government’s keenness to “introduce more trustees with business and financial backgrounds.”

What does “business experience” with BAE look like? This is a company perhaps best-known for its role in the 1985 Al-Yamamah arms deal,
making £43bn selling warplanes to the Saudi monarchy – with an
estimated £6bn “distributed in corrupt commissions, via an array of
agents and middlemen.” The Serious Fraud Office began an investigation
into the Al-Yamamah deal in 2004, only for its probe to be shut down in December 2006, after alleged Saudi blackmail.

As the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) puts it,
BAE “has armed dictatorships and human rights abuses around the world…
Its chair should not be paid £70,610 a year to ‘represent license fee
payers’ views.’”

With the exception of CAAT, there has been virtually no media discussion of Carr’s appointment (there is also this piece
from RT). Clearly, our journalists are so used to the submersion of
our public institutions in corporate influence that they no longer seem
to notice.

And this, unfortunately, is not the first time we’ve had to ask questions about the BBC and the arms trade. CAAT has previously campaigned
(successfully) against plans for BBC political editor, Nick Robinson,
and security correspondent, Frank Gardner, to wine and dine with
representatives of the arms industry. It has also, in the past, expressed concern over Top Gear’s links with Clarion Events, a company with a history of purchasing and promoting arms fairs.

By bringing BAE’s chairman into such a senior position with the BBC
Trust, the government has deeply associated our public broadcaster with
an industry known mainly for corruption, bribery and contempt for
human rights. This is the real scandal we should be talking about – and
fighting.A longer version of this article by Harry Blain is available here...Source: Open Democracy